Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, December 2010

What I did…

Arrived in Siagon at 6PM but the recommended guest house was too expensive so we found a place to stay in amongst local houses and the odd local food stall. It felt like we were really a part of the Vietnamese community.

Breakfast at the market is always a great start to the day especially when it costs less that 80 pence! Walked down to the river and then got a motorbike taxi back though the mental traffic to get to Marcus and Ed to go to the water park. Took a local bus to the water park and the fun began! Space Bowl, Kamikaze, Zip Line and Wave pool were the highlights and it was worth every penny of the 3 pound it cost to gt in…

We also got entry to the park next door and walked around one of the most disturbing zoo’s Ive ever seen. Bear’s in tiny cages, elephants chained to the floor etc. Me and Ed went on probably the most dangerous ride we are ever likely to go on while Marcus watched on. We walked to the ‘Botanical Gardens’ that were in fact mounds of dirt! The most amazing let down Ive ever witnessed.

After a rushed noodle dinner we all went to watch Harry Potter 7 at the cinema… Part 1! What a rip off, did not help ive not seen any other Harry Potter movie either!

We booked a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels to see how people lived during the war. We walked through the tunnels that we so tight it was hard to imagine people being able to live here, but the sad thing is, they did, for years! On the way back we got dropped off at the War Museum and saw some more disturbing imagery and read stories that should not be told here. Very interesting but a lot of information to take in in an afternoon.

After dinner we all went to Karaoke which was a great decision, we all sang, we were all almost crying with laughter at points. I sang Earth Song by MJ in my own special way. Marcus sang everything as deep as he could, Gena and Lena were doing duets, me and Jason got the highest score
singing Champagne Supernova and we all told Ed he had to sing his song off the advert he did. We all got in around 4am and had to be up for another day trip at 7… ooops! All in all it was a very funny night, after quite a depressing day.

After waiting for Irene’s bus for a while and no sign of Ed or Jase I had to go wake them up from their drunken sleep. We said bye to Irene and then set off to the Mekong Delta. After holding a 2 meter python we took a small boat in groups of 4 down one of the Mekong’s tributaries, me and Jase took it in turns paddling the boat along with the guides. After a short donkey ride we had lunch. Less said about what happened at lunch the better…

We went in search of a burger for dinner and watched Vietnam get knocked out of the South East Asia Cup. Everyone was disappointed around us but just seemed to get on with it. Lena, Gena and Marcus made me stay out drinking until 4am again as they paid for my drinks, I had ran out of money! I needed to be up at 6am for my flight back to Bangkok!

So 6:30am rolls around and Ed had to drag me out of bed as I had done to them the day before. Off to the airport for our flight and our second trip to Thailand…

Vietnam was one hell of a month, I had some of the best times of my life and met some of the most fantastic people in my life! Sad days having to say goodbye for now to people as we all were going our separate ways! Amazing month, amazing people, amazing time. Vietnam, DONE!

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